the krytan assassin.9235

Anet is in my opinion simply not able to keep enough diversity in the used weaponsets. Except a few examples every class usually just picks the best power/condi/heal weapons and then slaps it on all especs resulting in the end in less build diversity.

Honestly arcane wave and being arcane blast being both instant cast+dmge was a big issue (in anet's eye) resulting in a massive nerf for competitive modes in pvp/wvw (Power coëfficient from 1.4 to to 0.6 in 2020). Ever since then the skills feel kinda pointless in wvw/pvp and arcane blast was only being used in PvE as a boring filler utility like mantra of pain. I agree that the new arcane wave has its problems. I think thematically the leap+stun makes more sense on arcane blast, the skill animation is a lazy copy of sundering leap and casting time/animation feels way to slow for ele. However i guess the casting time at least gave back the opportunity to add some dps back into the skill for competitive modes. Also the extra option of a CC (and it being a stun/daze) is quite nice for instanced PvE. Its good for heal alac Tempest and gives pdps (although still not optimal) a way to provide some CC outside of some fresh air Weaver/catalyst builds. I'd say overall its an improvement over the previous skill, but it could've been way better designed (and the same goes for the other arcane skills).

S tier: ele, engi A tier: necro, mesmer B tier: Ranger, warrior, guardian C tier: revenant, thief

Staff is in kind of a weird spot in terms of open world PvE. Effective open world builds tend to rely heavily on overall boonuptime, but unfortunately both Tempest (melee range overload) and catalyst (spheres need frequent hits for energy& swap between attunements) do not synergize well with staff. Cdps Weaver (on world bosses) and Pdps Weaver (for world bosses& large scale events) can be a decent pick in the right situation if Boons are provided by the squad. For instanced PvE staff is a very strong healweapon for healalac temp in Raids and strike (cm's) and outclassed d/wh in most occasions, but its unfortunately to slow for fractals. Cdps staff Weaver is an ok'ish dps pick that benches around ~42k i believe. It relies quite heavily on bosses being stationary and having burning retreat in your dps rotation can be quite annoying. Pdps staff Weaver offers a decent LI dps option, but struggles abit in terms of benchmark dps. The nerfs to swift revenge & elements of rage from last year's balance patch to bring down sw/wh dps unfortunately heavily impacted staff's dps output. It unfortunately lacks any sort of utility, but should be able to provide 30k+ dps on the golem with little effort (especially with large hitboxes). If you want, grieving staff Weaver can be a fun pick aswell, although it tends to be just slightly lower in terms of dps compared to the regular p/c dps while not providing any bonusses.

Ctemp was kinda overperforming when it came to overall dps/boon output when compared to the other ele elite specs, so it kinda made sense that way. And keeping the pistol BiS for ctemp kinda makes sense due to the lack of synergy with Weaver/catalyst. Compared to some other completely OP professions/especs the nerf was however completely unnecessary

Ideally Id probably swap smothering auras to a GM water trait, together with elemental bastion and soothing power. (And put powerful auras on gm arcane instead of elemental surge). Also completely rework soothing ice in water (at least in PvE). frost aura on crit doesn't make any sense when like 95% of the enemies dont even crit

For PvE: Virtuoso: Jagged mind: remove healing on bleeds & reduce bleeding duration to 4 seconds Bladeturn refrain: add healing on strike dmge Quiet intensity: remove 10% vit to ferocity modifier Infinite forge: add 15% precision to ferocity dmge modifier Signet of humiliation: duration reduced to 5 sec/500 breakbar dmge And for all classes: Deal 10% less damage/condi duration while target is further then 360 range away, 20% less damage while target is more then 600 range away/30% less while target is more then 900 range away. I dont necessarily like the stacking meta, but given the current boon/dps/power budget/risk vs reward system its the only balancing method that makes sense to me.

Well how much more alac duration do you want then? You can already upkeep perma alac by using a single overload attunement off cooldown with 100% boon dura and you can get like 200% uptime if you constantly swap/overload. For Adps youre normally fine aswell aslong as youre not getting interrupted during overload. In fractals you can generate ~25 sec of alac on prebuff. For raids/strikes boondps is going to feel about awkward for most specs if you want to slot minimal boon duration for maximal dps output (Herald& Chrono being the only exceptions). If anything id only recommend to rework harmonius conduit and make stability on overload baseline to increase its consistency.

All i am saying is that the sequence of events matter. If a build has some underlying issues that need to be addressed, it should be done simultaneously with buffing/nerfing its dps. Nerfing dps output of a espec that has ~0.5% class popularity and is not overperforming in 98% of the encounters doesnt make any sense at all. Theres maybe ~4 balance patces per year and most of them are fairly small, the avg fix rates of builds is well over a year. This nerfs are devastating for Mirage. Also on that same not, you mention cvirt isnt good because i should imagine it as a virtuoso without piercing??? Aside from the fact that cvirt is completely broken because of all sorts of different reasons, your argument is completely flawed.

Idc about the highest dps benchmark with perfect Boons+conditions on a stationary standard armor lvl 4 mil hp golem, i care about the overall output/ performance of a build (such as rampup time) and then start balancing dps accordingly. Mirage simply was not overperforming and therefore did not need any dps nerfs. Simple as it is. Same BS with Cvirt. Build is currently ridiculously overperforming @42,5k dps in terms of overall output (dps/self sustain/pierce/cc/utilities). That build deserves to be dropped to under 36-38k dps (alongside a few others). Im sick and tired of having 6 cvirts in every single strike CM.

This has got to be one of the worst balance changes Ive seen in my 11 years of playing this game. This preview proves again that the devs have absolutely no clue whats going on in terms of instanced PvE and only take a look at the snowcrows benchmark lists for their balance changes. How can you be so completely detached from your own game that you think that builds such as Mirage, condi holo, condi Weaver/Tempest and quick untamed are overperforming while simultaneously making absolutely no remark about the absolutely broken state that for example cvirt, pslb and Reaper are currently in. The nerfs to karakosa relic also seems really weird. NOBODY wants to go back to the Monk relic meta. Karakosa is currently not overperforming and theres actually a nice spread across the relics for support. On top of that the relic actually facilitated unique healing builds that will now become absolutely useless again. If you actually want to start nerfing some of the overperforming builds, id probably recommend starting to take a look at https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/popularity

From the perspective of instanced PvE I wouldnt say elementalisy is the weakest class out there. The mesmer, necro and revenant are currently quite a bit overtuned though. These all feature relatively easy to play builds with alot of extra utility & surviveability. Thief, Ranger, Engineer, Guardian and warrior all have different issues, but issues nonetheless. Overall ele has access to a great healalac build, good qdps build, weak adps build, good melee & ranged cdps, decent melee pdps and weak ranged pdps.

You currently still lose the orbs whenever your skillbar changes. (So for example on Mathias cc, samarog cc, ziplines, island hopping on 98cm etc the list goes on. Its still incredibly frustrating to deal with. Either just remove the orb removal on weapon swap or make sure its only removed when weapon swapping.

I'd say its mainly due to not swapping attunements fast enough or not chaining your weapon skills resulting in alot of interrupts. (At least on golem) Also i normally prefer to take offhand dagger and fresh air over warhorn and Bolt to the heart for most actual fights. It gives overall alot more versatility and usually has higher overall output in mechanic heavy fights

In the end its all about getting as much team dps in as possible, tankyer/more support focused builds tend to increase the efficiency of your group members. Minstrel/givers allows you to ignore more mechanics-> increases dps uptime on squad. Hybrids are a good alternative if you're planning to heal squads with 1.5 healer or fractals with 0.5 healer (like heal/boon/dps with 15-25k dps output). If you take a full heal build, slotting in slightly more dps from utility/armor/weapons will usually result in a negligible difference in dps output.